Beautification Watch Begins: A Trip of Two Interns

On Wednesday, July 22, fellow Keep Akron Beautiful (KAB) intern, Lauren Brady and I set out to cover our first Beautification Watch route. As we started driving down West Market towards Highland Square, I had no idea what to expect. After a couple of hours weaving in and out of side streets, Lauren reading the map while navigating the roads and I jotting down addresses while scanning houses, I can honestly say that I am impressed.

Most properties on the route were well maintained and beautiful. Just driving down the street you can really tell how much Akron locals and businesses take pride in their properties! We saw a few properties that really stood out from the others and some that were subtle but still lovely! As a result of the weather we also witnessed a number of gardeners putting more hard work into their lawns. It’s always nice to see people working hard to keep their property and the community beautiful!

Unfortunately, we couldn’t give out an award to every property we saw. Many properties on our route were very close to being award worthy but missed some of the criteria. Remember that having numerous flowers or shrubs does not secure you a nomination! Lawns also need to be well maintained with no weeds and really stand out from other lawns on the street!

I know that I definitely had fun picking properties from the passenger seat! I really got to see more of Akron and even picked up some tips from good-looking properties. This volunteering opportunity inspired me to get outside and get to work! Or, at least write some of those inspirations down for when I actually have a lawn of my own someday! Thanks Akron and keep staying beautiful!

Interns, Shelby and Lauren, looked very excited to start their first Beautification Watch route

From Behind the Wheel:Pedal to the Metal With Lauren Brady

Covering the Highland Square portion of the Beautification Watch route was a lot of fun and I can honestly say I was pleasantly surprised by how many beautiful yards and businesses Shelby and I passed on our drive through Akron.

Trying to scope out houses that met all of the criteria was a little hard from behind the wheel, but luckily Shelby was able to write down all of the addresses I saw and check that they really did meet all of the qualifications. We put together a system to make the watch more successful, and hopefully more accurate, so we didn’t miss out on any houses that were qualified for the award. Shelby watched the houses on the right side of the road, while I tried to keep an eye on the left hand side without taking my eyes off of the road too much! I’d say we did pretty well at marking down all of the beautiful yards in the Highland Square area!

The majority of the drive was spent going between 15 and 20mph; fortunately, we were able to put signs in my car to let other drivers, and residents, know why we were slowly rolling down residential streets. So, thank you, to all of the drivers who may have been stuck behind us for being so patient!

Driving down the side streets in Akron really opened my eyes to how much pride residents take in the appearance of their homes. Like Shelby said, I too feel inspired by all the hard work that I saw and I’m even more excited to one day have a yard of my own to make as beautiful as all of the homes I saw on our Beautification Route!

Thank you for all of that hard work and helping keep our community beautiful!